


Smoking

by jj_minerva



Category: AJ Raffles - Hornung
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-04-17
Updated: 2004-04-17
Packaged: 2017-10-02 11:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jj_minerva/pseuds/jj_minerva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Schoolboy Bunny learns how to smoke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smoking

Smoking

 

By Minerva

 

"It's really quite easy Bunny, just open your lips so, put it in and suck….but gently. You don't want to get too much until you are used to it."

 

We were in the boatshed once again, Raffles and I, seated side by side in one of the sculls, the air around us blue with smoke. Raffles held out his Sullivan to me and smiled. "Go on, you try it now."

 

I took the cigarette eagerly, licked my lips and placed it into my mouth. "Like this?"  I muttered between clenched teeth.

 

"No, no…you'll get the end all wet and soggy. Hold it between your lips, lightly."

 

I tried again, this time managing to draw in a lungful of smoke that set me coughing and spluttering. Raffles retrieved his cigarette with a laugh.

 

"I think you are overly eager Bunny, my boy. Relax and enjoy it. You'll find it easier that way."

 

Easy for Raffles to say; my heart was pounding and my hands were sweaty. Not only was I out at night and hiding in the boatshed, but I was with Raffles, Captain of the cricket team and my hero, who had asked me on this little tryst in order to teach me something about smoking.  I wondered yet again at his generosity in enduring my presence. I was his fag, a junior in the middle fourth, and in no way worthy of his attentions. Yet he said I had pluck and he was proud of my misguided attempts to rescue him a fortnight ago. This little excursion was a way of showing his thanks.

 

"Every boy should know how to smoke Bunny and I consider it my solemn duty to make up for this omission in your education."  So here we were, passing a cigarette back and forth between us by the light of a small candle that Raffles had produced from behind a loose board in the wall. Raffles closed his eyes and took a long drag on the Sullivan, before blowing a perfect smoke ring towards the roof.

 

"Like that Bunny, slowly and carefully as if you were about to….kiss someone for the first time."

 

"Kiss?" I stuttered. "I've never kissed anyone. I don't know how to do that either."

 

Something sparked in Raffles eyes and he cocked his head, a lazy smile on his lips. "Never kissed anyone Bunny? Now I find that hard to believe."

 

"It's true.  I've never even thought about it."

 

Raffles passed the Sullivan back to me with a shake of his head. "The gaps in your education are frightful Bunny. But I simply can't be your instructor in all things. You will have to find someone else for the kissing, I 'm afraid."

 

I blushed to the roots of my hair. "I…I …I…" I stammered, shaking ash all over my legs.

 

Raffles burst out laughing. "You really are a little rabbit at times Bunny. I do so enjoy winding you up." He rescued the Sullivan from my shaking fingers and held it up to my mouth. "Now, let's try this again. Open your lips a little. Place it between them, gently."

 

I licked my lips to moisten them, for my mouth had suddenly gone dry. Raffles' joke had not been amusing. The thought of kissing him had set me to trembling all over and even now I was fighting a losing battle with a certain part of my anatomy that had developed a mind of its own. At least this time I was wearing something a little stouter than pyjamas.

 

Oblivious to my discomfit, Raffles placed the Sullivan between my lips and held it there.

"Now breathe in, slowly, Bunny," he whispered, his fingers coming to rest against my lips so that I was afraid to move lest I increase the pressure and he think I really was attempting to kiss him.

 

I inhaled, the smoke tickling the back of my throat and making my eyes water.

 

"Now hold it a moment, breath it back, deeply." His thumb brushed slowly along my jaw and I gasped in surprise, causing me to do exactly as Raffles had directed. Smoke filled my lunges and I tried not to cough.

 

"Breathe it out." Raffles finally commanded just when I thought I would pass out for want of air. He pulled the cigarette away as I opened my mouth, a ghastly spume of smoke billowing forward followed by a spasm of coughing so severe that I thought my ribs might break from the strain. My head spun sharply and when it finally stopped I found I was leaning against Raffles shoulder and his arm was around me holding me upright.

 

"My dear Bunny, whatever are you doing? I have never known anyone to die from smoking and yet I thought for a moment you might be the first. I was beginning to wonder how I was going to dispose of your body."

 

I tried to laugh. "I hope kissing is easier than this for I fear I will not make much of a smoker." Strangely my near brush with asphyxiation had done little to dampen my blood and it was still well and truly up. Indeed Raffles embrace was doing so much to overcome my embarrassment that I was at the point of wondering if I might yet prevailed upon him to demonstrate his kissing technique after all.

 

It seemed as if Raffles had read my thoughts for he ruffled my hair and said, "Oh yes, kissing is far easier Bunny, but I fear you should master one skill before embarking on another. Here, watch me again."  He pursed his full lips and slid the cigarette between them, holding it there, almost caressing it. His nostrils flared and he inhaled, the muscles of his throat moving ever so slightly, his eyes rolling back, his dark lashes fluttering closed in near ecstasy.  He looked like an angel. I leaned closer, mesmerised, and watched as he withdrew the Sullivan from his lips, the tip of it glistening slightly from the wetness of his mouth. He breathed, a soft exhalation of wispy smoke that drifted towards my upturned face as he opened his eyes again and smiled at me. "Bunny?" he whispered.

 

This was the moment. I would ask him to kiss me here and now. I steeled myself, opened my mouth to speak, drew in a great lungful of air and smoke only to find myself choking once again and coughing so hard that I was forced to lean over the side of the boat and be sick on the boatshed floor.

 

It was hardly a romantic ending to our little tryst. At least Raffles thought it greatly amusing and no doubt recounted the tale to his friends. As for me, once more I was left to wonder what might have happened and dream of what might yet be.

 

Minerva.

 

17th April 2004

 


End file.
